


I Know You

by xmarvelstanx



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Drabble, Kinda, M/M, Reincarnation AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 08:08:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13454028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xmarvelstanx/pseuds/xmarvelstanx
Summary: “I don’t know.” Tony breathed, and Loki had tensed, hands at his waist as he pulled back, those startlingly green eyes focusing on his expression - as if to search it.---Whoops, my hand slipped.





	I Know You

The moment that fingers closed around his throat in New York for the first time, he knew something was familiar.

Maybe it was the eyes - verdigris colored, aged, wild and desperate with something that he couldn’t pinpoint. He doesn’t get a chance to say more because he’s thrown out a window and really, he’s had enough falling for the rest of his life.

The feeling never really leaves - something’s changed inside him and he can’t… figure out what. It’s frustrating, but Tony is tired of feeling broken so he bottles up the thoughts and places them on a shelf in his mind with all the other things he tries not to think about.

* * *

It’s a shock when Thor tells them that his brother died - even more so when Thor tells them that it was an honorable death, one where Loki gave his life for Thor’s and Jane’s.

Thor tells them more about New York, more about what had happened to Loki. He looks pained.

Tony’s efforts are broken up. That bottle feels like the bottom dropped out of it and everything that he’d tried to contain comes spilling out, invading all his thoughts.

He feels empty.

Tony throws himself into work and tries to forget.

He’s so broken that he starts breaking the things around him.

The accords go wrong. The fight with Steve goes wrong. Pepper goes wrong.

He breaks everything he touches and all he can do is step up to the plate when they ask him.

They fight Thanos’s army with everything they have. They fight Thanos, exhaustion gripping at their bones - and there’s some hum in the air, some electricity--

And Thor stands there on the battlefield - missing an eye and much of his hair, hands balled into fists at his sides, lightning dancing across his skin. Bruce blinks in bewilderment behind him, nearly pressed to his side, and there--

Tony’s not sure the last time he’d felt that much joy from the just the sight of someone. It sends his heart zinging and suddenly he has more energy than he’d had at the beginning of the battle - he covers the Asgardians, keeps their back free so they can advance.

He takes more than one hit for Loki and he shouldn’t feel relief so strong that it makes his fingers tremble, but he doesn’t know what to name this feeling.

Loki looks so familiar, throwing his daggers, hair kicked up by the wind.

Tony only gets distracted for only a second by a flash off of one of Loki’s daggers and it’s enough to be knocked from the sky.

He forgets about the Asgardians for the moment.

After the battle, Tony has to resist following Loki everywhere like a damn puppy - he stays at the Avengers facility while New Asgard is funded and set up in Norway.

Thor becomes busy - a King usually is - but Loki seems perfectly happy to ignore his Princely duties.

He showed up on the facility doorstep more than once just… visiting.

It was weird to have a sane Loki around - he was much softer and much more prone to careful banter, willing to listen to Tony ramble about things in the workshop if Loki ever ended up there.

After a while, Tony began to realize that’s always where Loki ended up always.

It’s not a terrible revelation - he actually finds it comforting. At least he seems to care - at least he seems to consider them friends.

Tony thinks he might have felt that horrible hollow feeling again if Loki had just decided to keep his distance.

There’s something haunting about the way Loki looks at him sometimes and when Tony quits having so many nightmares, he starts to have a suspicion.

Loki sometimes appears in his dreams.

He’s pretty sure it’s not just a dream on those nights, but they never talk about it. Loki never mentions it and Tony doesn’t really feel like causing an issue when what they have works perfectly well.

Great, actually.

Loki even helps out on certain projects and Tony lets their shoulders bump, elbows brush on those days. He takes what he can get.

The touches are still fairly new but Tony feels like they’d been working around each other like this for ages.

Loki asks him one day about Earth’s religions.

Tony laughs and laughs.

When he finally gathers enough of his composure to speak, he tells him about the ones he knew - tells him there’s so many that he ought to do his own research if he’s so interested.

Loki looks a bit miffed, but he keeps talking instead of taking Tony’s advice.

He talks about Asgard and reincarnation and Valhalla and Tony listens, head tipped slightly towards the God, fingers coated in grease as he worked on a gauntlet.

Tony thinks there’s important information in there somewhere.

He stores it away and thinks about it later.

Tony asks Loki in his dreams if reincarnation is real.

Loki laughed and laughed.

He looked at Tony with a strange look in his eyes - Tony would call it love if he didn’t know better.

“What do you think, Anthony?” The God had asked him quietly.

Tony woke to the darkness of his room, a hand settling itself over his heart to try and soothe the frantic beating.

The little touches became maddening.

So Tony starts pushing - he grabs Loki’s arm in his dreams, leans against his side in reality - and never once does Loki shove him away like he had expected.

Tony practically draped himself across the God whenever he can these days and Loki might squirm little to make it more comfortable, but he seems to actually… enjoy his presence.

Tony ran his fingers through Loki’s hair whenever he could, pulling at curls to watch them bounce back.

When they finally kiss, Tony’s not surprised.

He probably should have been, but it - like everything else about Loki - feels familiar.

Tony sank into it, hands cupped at the sides of Loki’s neck, back pressed into the hard edge of his work table.

“I don’t know.” Tony breathed, and Loki had tensed, hands at his waist as he pulled back, those startlingly green eyes focusing on his expression - as if to search it.

“I don’t know if reincarnation is real.” Tony managed, a hand wandering up to brush his fingers against Loki’s jaw.

“But I know you.” Tony murmured, and that old awe crept back into Loki’s eyes. Their foreheads bumped.

“And I, you.”


End file.
